Chinese authorities are working to seize nearly 62,000 bitcoins — worth around $5 billion at today’s prices — linked to one of the country’s largest-ever fraud cases.
Prosecutors allege that Qian Zhimin, the alleged controller of Tianjin Lantian Gerui Electronic Technology, recruited associates to sell fake wealth management products nationwide from 2014 to 2017 without financial regulatory approval, promising guaranteed returns to investors, according to a report last week from Shanghai’s The Paper.
The scheme raised some RMB 40.3 billion ($2.8 billion). Qian allegedly used investors’ cash to pay off earlier participants — Ponzi-style — while channeling funds into the bitcoin holdings, property, cars, and jewelry. Little of the money went toward legitimate business operations.
In July 2017, as the scheme unraveled, Qian fled to the UK carrying computers holding the bitcoin wallets. British authorities later seized the crypto assets and other property, including roughly 61,900 BTC along with cash, jewelry, and other cryptocurrencies.
The case took a significant turn recently when the UK High Court ruled that Chinese law — not UK law — applies to ownership disputes over the seized bitcoin.
The coins have appreciated enormously since 2017, and the applicable law determines whether victims share in those gains. The UK’s Crown Prosecution Service says victims may recover losses through China’s compensation mechanism, but representatives from Fieldfisher law firm, acting for some victims, are considering an appeal. Further hearings will determine whether victims can prove their entitlement to the assets.
Meanwhile, the Second Intermediate People’s Court of Tianjin announced it accepted the prosecution’s application on September 28 to confiscate Qian’s illicit assets.
Victims can register to participate in asset recovery proceedings through a WeChat platform, with a six-month notice period before the formal trial begins.
China has some of the world’s strictest rules in regulating crypto. Its government banned digital asset trading and bitcoin mining back in 2021.
